Jun 19, 2008

forestexplorer - [...] This is what happens when the federal government squeezes the opposition-led states and denies it the funding it requires. The federal government seems to forget that the granting of funds to the states should not be tied to which political party is running those states. The granting of funds to the states is a clause in the Federation Agreement.

At one time, the Malay states were independent and were known as the Straits Settlements, the Federated Malay States, or the Unfederated Malay States. Then they all agreed to merge into the Federation of Malaya. In doing so the states agreed to relinquish certain rights like national defence, security and foreign policy while they retained certain rights like land matters, natural resources and religion. Each state would then be given an annual grant plus loans for development, calculated based on the size of its population.

These were the terms agreed in the Federation Agreement and which was the basis for all the states to merge under the Federation of Malaya. And any first-year law student can tell you that an agreement made on the basis of mutual consent can no doubt be changed with the signing of a supplementary agreement, but must also be based on mutual consent. One party can’t unilaterally change the terms of the agreement without the consent of the other party. In the event one party violates the terms of the agreement, then the aggrieved party can either give notice for the termination of the agreement or sue for specific performance, with or without damages (unless there is a specific clause in the agreement that stipulates what happens when there is a breach -- like going for international arbitration, etc.).... selanjutnya.